Joomla_Logo_SloganJoomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets and a model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework that can also be used independently. Joomla installs directly on you web hosting server.

As of March 2012, Joomla has been downloaded over 30 million times. Over 6,000 free and commercial extensions are available from the official Joomla! Extension Directory, and more are available from other sources. It is estimated to be the second most used CMS on the Internet after WordPress. Joomla was the result of a fork of Mambo on August 17, 2005. At that time, the Mambo name was trademarked by Miro International Pvt. Ltd., who formed a non-profit foundation with the stated purpose of funding the project and protecting it from lawsuits.

joomlaA Joomla template is a multifaceted Joomla extension which is responsible for the layout, design and structure of a Joomla powered website. While the CMS itself manages the content, a template manages the look and feel of the content elements and the overall design of a Joomla driven website. Joomla is considered SEO friendly. The content and design of a Joomla template is separate and can be edited, changed and deleted separately. The template is where the design of the main layout for a Joomla site is set. This includes where users place different elements (components, modules, and plug-ins), which are responsible for the different types of content. If the template is designed to allow user customization, the user can change the content placement on the site, e. g., putting the main menu on the right or left side of the screen. There are many paid and free templates available on the internet.

Joomla extensions help extend the Joomla websites’ ability. There are five types of extensions for Joomla!: Components, Modules, Plugins, Templates, and Languages. Each of these extensions handles a specific function.
Components:

The largest and most complex extensions of them all; they can be seen as mini-applications. Most components have two parts: a site part and an administrator part. Every time a Joomla page loads, one component is called to render the main page body. Components are the major portion of a page because a component is driven by a menu item and every menu item runs a component.
Plugins:

These are more advanced extensions and are, in essence, event handlers. In the execution of any part of Joomla, a module or a component, an event can be triggered. When an event is triggered, plugins that are registered with the application to handle that event execute. For example, a plugin could be used to block user-submitted articles and filter out bad words.
Templates:

Describe the main design of the Joomla website and are the extensions that allow users to change the look of the site. Users will see modules and components on a template. They are customizable and flexible. Templates determine the “style” of a website.
Modules: Rendering pages flexibly in Joomla requires a module extension, which is then linked to Joomla components to display new content or new images. Joomla modules look like boxes – like the “search” or “login” module. However, they don’t require html to Joomla to work.

Languages:

Very simple extensions that can either be used as a core part or as an extension. Language and font information can also be used for PDF or PSD to Joomla conversions.

 

-TOD

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